Miami 2014 … by gimleteye

My wife and I took a walk on the beach the other day. Miami Beach was packed with vacationers. Earlier in the week I had written about the perplexing mini-boom in construction that is gripping Miami only a few years after the worst real estate crash since the Great Depression.

The political abuses that mounted during the last building boom -- high as Mt. Trashmore -- had consequences, although it is hard to find any at all in 2013. On the other hand, for the great majority of South Florida residents, the effects of the boom and bust are still etched in cratered family finances, prospects, and to the extent that it exists, a vision of the future. What is our future?

By "our" future, I don't mean builders like Jorge Perez risen like phoenixes from the ashes of the boom. In downtown Miami, construction crews are running 24/7. The Barnum and Bailey hucksterism from the developers that accompanied the last boom is back on full display. Where is the money coming from? What does it mean for Miami that -- according to CondoVultures -- applications for more than 180 new condos have been filed in South Florida?

My walk on the beach provides some shade. Twenty five years ago, when we used to regularly take our children to the beach on weekends, the dominant language was Spang-lish. That was right about the time that Miami began attracting Western European visitors. Bruce Weber, Gianni Versaci and the fashion shoots that planted their flags on Ocean Drive in the background. The Van Dyke Cafe appeared like an totemic transplant from NYC's Soho on Lincoln Road.

Three years ago, we were visiting Buenos Aires at Christmas. We scheduled our return to Miami for New Year's day, guessing the airport would be empty until the revelers had shaken the cobwebs from celebrating the night before. Wrong. The airport was jammed with Argentines. All were headed on 8 hour flights to Miami for vacations or to visit their second homes.

The other day, the beach south of 5th Street was crowded with visitors. Unlike twenty five years ago, or even five years ago, there were Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Malaysians, and Russians. It wasn't Spanglish that one could hear. It was a cacophony.

In the abstract, driving through downtown Miami and viewing the recent construction, one can understand how the economy of Miami-Dade County is reliant on the inflow of foreign capital. The exact statistics on how many units and how much commercial space is owned by foreign nationals are not available. However, this point holds true: Miami has been swept up into the globalized uni-destination. We are not the sum of our parts so much as a strange amoeba grown to gargantuan size.

There are implications for 2014 that follow from that observation.

Perhaps the one most relevant to Eye On Miami concerns politics, corruption and consequences. Our government is drifting on the tide of globalization. The buyers and investors behind the hundreds of new Miami condos have no connection whatsoever to the underlying history or politics of place. They want the electricity to work. And it does. They want police on the street. And they are. They would like parks, but there aren't. They would like culture, but it is grafted on where it exists. And traffic -- one of our pet peeves -- well, it's bad in Shanghai, Bangkok and Buenos Aires, too.

Miami is warm in winter. And -- best of all to new capital from around the globalized world -- Miami is comparatively cheap. Money instantly flows to cheap, until money itself becomes more expensive.

What about protecting the environment, our waters, a quality of life that was once two generations removed but is now four generations gone and drifting away day by day? If you asked those visitors on Miami Beach, my guess is that they would look at you like a three-headed monster. In 2014, it is not that people don't know. Like so many earlier generations of Floridians, they come from somewhere else. Increasingly, that somewhere else is a place where the public good is in a strait-jacket, shoved in a basement prison cell.

In 2014, people will continue to receive information about their worlds through a fire hose. "Caring" requires a background of specific knowledge; whether you are caring for an ill relative or for a city charging off in the wrong direction because politics and law enforcement are distracted by a different set of values.

In 2014, Miami is predominantly Hispanic but what Miami is becoming is built on flight capitol -- from the Americas extended to the forces of globalization that instantly attract wealth from Asia, from Russia and Europe with just a few clicks on Google. Welcome?

From the High Museum in Atlanta. By Geniusofdespair

What could I possibly add to this? It reminds me of a Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap label.

A Love Letter To All My Hispanic Friends at Holiday Time. By Geniusofdespair

On Facebook my Hispanic friends post pictures of family parties, cousins, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews and their children too. I envy their family loyalty but not having a party with 20+ people. I have seen my girlfriend's mother more than my 2 sisters.  For the most part, I don't post anyone in my extended family on Facebook and spend very little time with them. I post things like Whitney Houston, Nina Simone and a few other things like that on Facebook. All unrelated to me. I am not very fond of most of my family (they don't read my blog so I am safe saying it), however, I guess it is time to post a family portrait of the ones I DO love:

Actually it is a painting I did of people I photographed. But they could be my family. they appear to be be fun-loving and fond of the water. I am both. I could love them...if I knew who they were.

No Time Left To Tinker At The Edges Of Climate Change … by Larry Fink

There is no time left on the clock for free market solutions to the global warming problem, like capping and trading credits for or taxing carbon dioxide emissions equivalents. That was what we should have been doing since Jimmy Carter was President, before Ronald Reagan removed the solar panels from the White House and declared a Holy War on the environment. 

Then Nature fought back with a fury fueled by millions of megatons of pent up rage.

 

Thanks to 30 years of Reaganomics, we are now at a climate inflection point where draconian measures are called for, including:

(1) Use eminent domain to pay fair market value to keep the remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground in a perpetual Carbon Trust. 

(2) To recapture the carbon dioxide over-emitted to date, plant fast-growing trees on marginal lands that are watered with treated human wastewater and fed with treated human sludge. 

 

Both projects will be paid for with long-term Planet-Saver Bonds issued by the World Bank, with interest paid on the bonds from 10% of the profits from the sustainability-compatible commercial activities on the acquired lands from the lease-back agreements. 

 

It will cost trillions of dollars, but it will prevent hundreds of trillions of dollars in damages avoided and civilization saved over the next 100 years from sea level rise, ocean acidfication, and the increasing magnitudes, durations, and frequencies of extreme weather events that wipe out crops, spread pestilence and disease, cause mass migrations of people and wildlife, and exacerbate famine, starvation, debilitation and death.

 

Otherwise, the Atlantis myth is increasingly our reality.

 

http://truth-out.org/news/item/20751-climate-change-2013-where-we-are-now-not-what-you-think

For Person Of The Year: Edward Snowden

Back in October, Eye On Miami offered our vote to Time Magazine for the Person of the Year to NSA leaker, Edward Snowden. The Person of the Year should be someone uniquely suited, through his or her actions, to the times. Popes come and go but rarely does a Shakespearean character emerge fully clothed like Edward Snowden.

Snowden blows the doors off an issue closeted in America's consciousness: how much freedom we surrender to technologies whose reach and scope our Founding Fathers could never have imagined. Where do we draw the line on data collection? How do we dial back the national security state? but for Edward Snowden, these questions would be dormant.

There is enormous pressure now -- and it is reflected in what you hear from esteemed members of Congress -- to keep the wraps on surveillance technologies that touch our liberty and, by extension, vilify anyone with the temerity to expose the extent of data mining, collection, and storage.

From outside appearance, Edward Snowden is unremarkable. His skills sets with computers and software don't intersect with 99 percent of people his age. He would be the geek you might avoid in high school. (His detractors now harp on that story line. How he sat before his computer with a hood covering both his head and the screen.)

What makes us so uncomfortable in our celebrity-driven culture is that Snowden is an anti-celebrity. Everything about him speaks to the ordinary -- where cultural fame demands beauty, he is average looking, where our conscious attractions require of famous performers that any flaw in appearance be accompanied by a special character of voice, delivery or skill, Snowden is pallid, his stubble is average, nothing about him on film or photo sings -- and what he did was extraordinary.

His most ordinary fault is that under almost every other conceivable outcome of his interests and skills he would never be famous.  He is not an inventor. He is not a software or hardware designer. Had Shakespeare any inkling of what was to come, the great Bard or maybe Samuel Beckett might have invented him.

Eugene Robinson, OPED writer for the Washington Post, yesterday wrote that Snowden comes across as "smug and self-righteous-- an imperfect messenger, to say the least." I disagree. Think of the enormity of what Snowden did and try to imagine his actions performed by a grizzled veteran like Daniel Ellsberg or senior scientist. No. It takes someone young, reckless and idealistic to first gain access to the security state and then use keystrokes on a computer keyboard to undo the secrecy that required hundreds of billions of taxpayer investment.

Note from Quartz:

As more and more revelations emerged from the documents Edward Snowden lifted from the US National Security Agency, observers seemed numbed by the sheer scope and audacity of the agency’s domestic and foreign internet surveillance. The fallout for the tech industry has just begun: US companies must now prove, especially to foreign customers, that the move to cloud-based services, which necessitates sending all their data through the very same communication nodes to which the NSA has access, won’t put all of their secrets in the hands of US spymasters by default.

The effects are already being felt. Cisco blamed a poor quarter on deals in Russia and Brazil soured by fears about the NSA. Cisco also warned that this will affect many other US firms, and that it threatens the future of the internet of things—fitting, since the implications of a world in which every gadget is a potential mole sure are scary.

Inevitably, Snodwen's actions will drive the national security state to more inventive barriers and paranoia. With a history of lying to Congress and even to the President, now that the NSA is burying itself even deeper, who will reign in the spying? Edward Snowden might be all American voters and taxpayers ever get in terms of a single individual with the knowledge, access, and ability to publicly disclose the event of surveillance on all Americans and how the quest to find the needle in the haystack has put the tools for massive repression in the hands of a few people we trust to honor our privacy.

When Snowden says, as he does now, that the invasion of personal freedom has gone so much further than Orwell could have imagined, who can doubt he is right?

Robinson concludes:

(Snowden) was an obscure analyst working for a National Security Agency (NSA) contractor at a remote outpost in Hawaii. When he began working in the secret world, by his own telling, he was a true believer. But he became disillusioned — and then incensed — at what he considered outrageous violations of individual privacy by a surveillance apparatus that was out of control.
Snowden’s decision to leak massive amounts of information concerning some of the NSA’s most secret and intrusive spying programs has done more than embarrass officials in Washington. It has galvanized efforts throughout the world to protect what little privacy we have left.
Snowden’s revelations are devastating in their specificity. Americans know that all of our phone calls are logged by the government in a massive database. German Chancellor Angela Merkel knows that the NSA tapped her mobile phone. Brazilians and Indonesians, among others, know that their phone conversations may be listened to and their e-mails may be perused.
We know that secret court orders have forced phone companies and Internet providers to surrender private information. We also know that, unbeknown to those companies, the NSA and its partners — the equivalent spy agencies in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — apparently tap into fiber-optic cables and guzzle as much information as they can.
These ongoing disclosures provide a detailed map of a shadow realm that spans the globe. We now know how technology is destroying privacy — and what steps governments and communications companies must be pressured to take in order that privacy survives.
I can’t think of any individual who had more influence in 2013. Edward Snowden is the person of the year."

Did you vote in our poll? By Geniusofdespair

Almost time to publish our results. Vote in the "Sand in your Eyes" poll (right side of page).  More info on our poll.

Have a Merry Miami Christmas! … by gimleteye

A Christmas Story: Genting Casino Good to Staff? By Geniusofdespair

Resorts World CEO center? "Get me the name of those union leaders" he says.

Not so in New York. The Queens casino owned by Genting/Resorts World was ORDERED by a labor arbitrator to pay its staff a living wage.  that doubled most salaries. The workers went from $20,000 average to $40,000. So this is a happy ending for workers at the New York casino on food stamps and working 2 jobs.

We are talking New York wages not Arkansas.

The new Eddie Borrego, Lynda Bell's Chief of Staff, drives a Mercedes and is said to park in Lynda's space at the county executive parking lot when she isn't there. Which Eddie went to Singapore? He doesn't have to worry about a living wage, his year to date gross is $109,713.48. Eddie what happened to Johanna Faddis? Will someone find out?

So when Pepe Diaz and Lynda Bell say, the Casino will be good for jobs, think again.  Read this story from New  York. They had to be FORCED to pay a living wage. Remember, Lynda went to visit the Genting casino in a Singapore trip she made with her sidekick Eddie Borrego (we paid for both to go). Remember this New York story when Commissioners mention "jobs". This is why unions are necessary to fight greedy companies, like Malaysia's biggest corporation.

Resorts World, which has been spectacularly successful, did not dispute its ability to pay the salaries sought by the union, the Hotel Trades Council. The casino, which opened two years ago in southeastern Queens, attracts 35,000 visitors a day. It posted revenues of $696.5 million in the year ended in March and its electronic slot machines averaged $432 each a day in September, considerably more than slot machines in Atlantic City, Connecticut or Las Vegas

My Predictions for the future. By Geniusofdespair

• Lynda Bell will lose her District 8 County Commission seat in a close election. She will lose the key to her fence and find herself locked in her house. She will miss the last 4 days of campaigning and ringing that annoying bell at the polls. Her absence will make the difference. She will lose by 362 votes.

• Frank Carollo will run for Mayor of the City of Miami...and win. He will hire his brother to manage the city.

• Erik Fresen will finally lose his State Representative seat. It will be because his dentist puts the wrong mixture on his teeth and they lose their ultra-white sparkle (the only reason he could possibly win in the first place).

• Charlie Crist will hire Erik Fresen's dentist, who actually is a Democrat, and end up becoming Governor.

• Rebeca Sosa will run for County Mayor as will Xavier Suarez. They will have a  sing-off to see who bows out.

•  Eye on Miami will make a lot of money from that NEW DONATE button on the right of your screen or retire. That is a veiled threat. Ron Book, how about a few thousand? Genting? All our friends at the LBA and U.S. Century? The Knight Foundation? The money is rolling in already!! Thank God for Christmas present guilt. I think Carlos Gimenez has donated...not really sure. Go find that button guys!

Any predictions of your own?

The Second Building Boom in Miami: how, where, why? … by gimleteye

You have to pinch yourself.  Less than four years after the worst collapse of real estate since the Great Depression, Miami is in the midst of a second construction boom. It was only two years ago I wrote an essay for the blog, "The Twelve Days of Christmas"; detailing the players and hubris of the massive boom in the early 2000's. It's a trip down memory lane …

How is it possible that so soon after the crash another boom -- and likely another speculative bubble -- has taken off in downtown Miami? 

Last night, before dark, I walked with a friend around the area of lower South Miami Avenue near Mary Brickell Village. The place was sparsely attended. Locals have taken flights home for the holidays while new buyers from the Americas and Europe are spending Christmas and New Year's at home before getting on airplanes and flying to Miami for vacation.

Millions of square feet of housing and commercial space are sprouting up. If I close my eyes, it seems just yesterday that the only restaurants were Perricones and Rosinellas. 

Is this growth real or not? Last time around, the Fed's money purse (ie. taxpayers) was wide open, and before the crash, rogue banks like US Century were handing out mortgages like paper flyers on election day. The Fed rate remains super low, but unless I'm missing something, the banks have tightened hard on mortgage requirements.

I've heard and read that construction financing has also tightened, but many of this bubble's downtown Miami projects are mostly subscribed before the construction begins. Can excess liquidity swamp the equation of supply and demand? It happened in 2002-2006. I can't say if the same is happening now.

Increasingly I ask the question of the whole of downtown, but especially of the Brickell area. To be sure, the frightful traffic and diminished quality of life in the suburbs -- thanks to horrendous zoning decisions pushed by insider lobbyists and their cohorts on the county commission -- are pushing people toward the urban center. But there are no parks, and day by day the traffic becomes more congested.

Are there enough locals -- people who live and work downtown -- to sustain the massive construction boom? And how will buyers who only a few years ago bought condominiums with Biscayne Bay views feel about their property values, now that they realize they live in a condo canyon?

Remove the investment from the Americas, and Miami's economy would be flat on its back. But as my friend said, you can't change the fact. Miami -- a center of flight capital for the Americas since the cocaine cowboy days -- never stopped taking flight itself thanks to the exodus of billions of dollars from around the world. Today European economies are in a slump. Western capitols are comparatively expensive. Miami looks like a deal from the outside, but from the inside there are signs to the contrary.

And Miami has always sold itself cheap. Not just Miami, although we perfected the formula as a way to combine personal wealth of the Great Destroyers with political power. "Affordable" sprawl was the gold dagger in the heart of the state's natural attributes; willfully and deliberately mis-priced to make the formula work. But that is not exactly what is happening in downtown Miami.

I'm really not sure how many of the thousands of units that were built in the first boom and now in the second will ever be lived in, by their foreign owners. The shuck and jive detailed in the 2011 "Twelve Days of Christmas" is still happening, with many of the same players back in charge. 

Last night, I was really sure of only one observation. The workers busy on three shift details and there for one reason. The equity owners are racing the time clock because they know what follows a Miami construction boom. They want to take some if not all of their chips off the table before the next bust. 

That's why 24/7 construction. It's all hands on deck so long as buyers flood in, or as my father used to say, you have to make hay while the sun is shining. Shining it is, in Miami.

Christmas Light Shows. By Geniusofdespair

David Suzuki and the 59th Minute … share with your friends and family … by gimleteye

Erik Fresen's Campaign Report. By Geniusofdespair

Erik Fresen has collected $113,853. Against Erik, Daisy J. Baez has collected $67,005. That is pretty good since the last candidate against Fresen, Ross Hancock,  lost by about 1,400 votes, and he hardly collected any money at all.

Erik's PAC FLORIDIANS FOR A STRONG 67 Contributions:

07/27/12 StudentsFirst 825 K Street, 2nd Floor Sacramento CA 95814 education 5,000.00

07/27/12 United Faculty of Miami Dade Community College 11420 N. Kendall Drive, #107 Miami FL 33176 political org. 1,500.00

09/05/12 Creating Possibilities 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 political org. 10,000.00

09/20/12 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 9205 Southpark Center Loop Ornaldo FL 32819 publishing 2,500.00

09/24/12 Creating Possibilities 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 political org. 55,000.00

10/26/12 Paul Tudor Jones, II 92 Harbor Drive Greenwich CT 6830 investments 2,500.00

10/26/12 Building a Better Florida 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 political org. 2,500.00

10/26/12 Florida Thoroughbred Breeders PAC 801 S.W. 60th Avenue Ocala FL 34474 political org. 1,000.00

11/02/12 Rebuild Florida 8567 Coral Way, #374 Miami FL 33155 political org. 2,500.00

02/14/13 Creating Possibilities 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 political org. 10,000.00

02/21/13 Ronald Book, P.A. 18851 N.E. 29th Avenue, #1010 Aventura FL 33180 law firm 2,500.00

02/28/13 Job Growth for South Florida 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 political org. 2,000.00

03/01/13 Floridians for Innovation In Education 2640-A Mitcham Drive Tallahassee FL 32308 political org. 3,000.00

03/04/13 KHSE, LLC 1210 E. Beltline Road Richardson TX 75081 communications 2,500.00

03/04/13 Bayfront 2011 Development, LLC 1501 Biscayne Blvd, #107 Miami FL 33132 development 2,500.00

03/04/13 Florida Optometric CCE 319 Belvedere Road, #1 West Palm Beach FL 33405 political org. 2,500.00

03/04/13 Building a Better Florida 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 political org. 2,500.00

03/05/13 Florida Freedom Council CCE 2640-A Mitcham Drive Tallahassee FL 32308 political org. 5,000.00

07/30/13 Molina Healthcare, Inc. 200 Oceangate, #100 Long Beach CA 90802 health care 2,500.00

07/30/13 Mark W. Anderson 121 N. Monroe Street, #1401 Tallahassee FL 32301 govt. consultant 1,000.00

07/30/13 Dosal Tobacco Corporation 4775 N.W. 132nd Street Miami FL 33054 tobacco 5,000.00

07/30/13 West Flagler Associates, Ltd. P. O. Box 350940 Miami FL 33135 entertainment 5,000.00

07/31/13 Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, Inc. 1650 N.W. 87th Avenue Miami FL 33172 petroleum distribution 2,500.00

07/31/13 K12 Management, Inc. 2300 Corporate Park Drive Herndon VA 20171 education 2,500.00

07/31/13 The Horne Group P. O. Box 8339 Fleming Island FL 32006 govt. relations 2,000.00

07/31/13 Mixon & Associates 119 E. Park Avenue Tallahassee FL 32301 govt. relations 2,000.00

07/31/13 StudentsFirst 825 K Street, 2nd Floor Sacramento CA 95814 education 2,000.00

07/31/13 Posiventure, Inc. 9220 Bonita Springs Road, S.E., #210 Bonita Springs FL 34135 real estate 10,000.00

This was last updated 8/5/2013

Erik's PAC FLORIDIANS FOR A STRONG 67 Expenditures:

09/30/09 Robert H. Fernandez, P.A. 800 Douglas Road, #850 Coral Gables FL 33134 legal services 2,000.00

09/30/09 Dana D. Young Campaign 1807 W. Richardson Place Tampa FL 33606 contribution 500.00

10/05/09 Taproot Creative Group, LLC P. O. Box 10556 Tallahassee FL 32302 website design/hosting 1,026.09

12/09/09 Innovate Florida 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 contribution 5,000.00

12/29/09 W. Greg Steube Campaign P. O. Box 110017 Bradenton FL 34211 contribution 500.00

12/29/09 Shawn Harrison Campaign 1010 N. Florida Avenue Tampa FL 33602 contribution 500.00

10/13/11 Taproot Creative Group, LLC P. O. Box 10556 Tallahassee FL 32302 domain renewal 18.89

12/08/11 Taproot Creative Group, LLC P. O. Box 10556 Tallahassee FL 32302 website hosting 250.00

12/15/11 Communication Solutions, Inc. 2665 S.W. 37th Avenue, #504 Miami FL 33133 consulting 3,000.00

08/02/12 Cornerstone Management Partners, LLC 17 Westminster Gate Bergenfield NJ 07621 survey 1,500.00

08/07/12 Floridians for Economic Leadership 120 S. Monroe Street Tallahassee FL 32301 contribution 500.00

09/12/12 Floridans for Integrity in Government 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 contribution 10,000.00

09/25/12 Floridans for Integrity in Government 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 contribution 55,000.00

10/03/12 Mike LaRosa Campaign 1002 Sandlace Court Celebration FL 34747 contribution 500.00

03/21/13 Citizens for Effective and Effective Leadership 8306 Mills Drive, #374 Miami FL 33183 contribution 2,500.00

03/21/13 Penton Consulting, LLC 350 4th Avenue, S., #3 St. Petersburg FL 33701 consulting 5,000.00

04/05/13 Discover P. O. Box 6103 Carol Stream IL 60197 food & beverage 1,137.29

05/20/13 Mike Hill Campaign P. O. Box 16229 Pensacola FL 32507 contribution 500.00

05/22/13 Lucie M. Tondreau Campaign 1005 N.W. 128th Terrace North Miami FL 33168 contribution 500.00

05/29/13 Steven Bateman Campaign 3150 Fairways Drive Homestead FL 33035 contribution 500.00

06/06/13 Taproot Creative Group, LLC P. O. Box 10556 Tallahassee FL 32302 domain renewal 10.16

06/14/13 Discover P. O. Box 71084 Charlotte NC 28272 food & beverage 1,041.10

07/31/13 Bank of Tampa P. O. Box 1 Tampa FL 33601 service charge 15.00

07/31/13 Bank of Tampa P. O. Box 1 Tampa FL 33601 service charge 15.00

08/16/13 Penton Consulting, LLC 350 4th Avenue, S., #3 St. Petersburg FL 33701 consulting 3,450.00

08/29/13 Robert Watkins & Company 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 accounting services 5,465.67

09/05/13 Discover P. O. Box 71084 Charlotte NC 28272 travel 812.23

08/29/13 Robert Watkins & Company 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 accounting services 5,465.67

09/25/13 Robert Watkins & Company 610 S. Boulevard Tampa FL 33606 accounting services 750.00

09/27/13 Floridians for a Strong 67 PC 95 Merrick Way, #250 Coral Gables FL 33134 contribution 65,458.57

 This was last updated 9/27/2013

I like the contributions to Lucie Tondreau and Steve Bateman. What do you think of that Lynda Bell? The only thing I don't understand is he listed an expenditure to his own PAC from his CCE for $65,458.57. That makes no sense to me.  What did he spend it on?  And I looked up Floridans for Integrity in Government and could not find the contributions on their site.  He changed it to a PAC from CCE 9/27/2013.

Sunday Rant: Charcoal Barbecue Grills … by gimleteye

I don't have high barriers for choosing a charcoal barbecue grill. I don't want a shopping cart positioned over a wood fire. On the other hand, why are barbecue grills so poorly made?

I cover my grills faithfully and clean them out. But I've burned through so many grills over the years, why don't the manufacturers don't just label the grill: "this is a disposable product. After three years, discard."

Here is what I want. I want a charcoal grate to be adjustable, preferably by a lever; to raise and lower the heat. I want the air flow to be controllable. Is this too much to ask? I want thick enough metal in the key places where corrosion occurs; not skinny sheets.

If you have $2500 to spare, you can find a charcoal grill to do exactly what I want in terms of controlling heat. But even these grills you have to treat like an exotic car: put them in a garage after use or risk the fate of all grills stored outside: destruction.

Webers are fine, so far as they go.  The one with a bubble cover. But I wanted a grill is more capable of controlling heat. I found several. But they all were built like s@#t.

There are several grills out there that have adjustable height charcoal grates, costing from $300-600. I've had better success with lower priced models, from $100-$200, except for the fact they only last a couple of years. Sure, they have spare parts catalogues and departments. I called one the other day. Gave him the part number and model of the grill I bought at Home Depot three years ago. He said he'd get back to me, never did. How many people are going to first take the time to call the part department, then dismantle a grease caked grill to slide a new part in that may or may not fix?

As I scanned the web to replace my 3 year old Brinkmann, I'm considering going back to the basic Weber. There is nothing out there that doesn't look like a waste of money. Really, how hard can it be to build an affordable charcoal barbecue grill with an adjustable grate that isn't built for obsolescence?

Poll on Toxic Politicians. By Geniusofdespair

Who do you think is the most important politician for the Democrats to get rid of in order (I have them in order of their position):

Mayor Luigi Boria (Doral)
Lynda Bell County Commissioner
Pepe Diaz County Commissioner
Erik Fresen State Rep.
Rick Scott Governor
Marco Rubio Senator

The big question is: Do the Democrats have anyone to run against them?

Ron Book and Kris Korge - across a crowed room.

Democratic Lobbyists like Ron Book could help the local Dem picks raise money if he really cared about the community. However, I don't think he really does care about anything but his own pocketbook. He did help to get Monestime in office.  Step up to the plate Ron and Chris Korge. We need some money for the local races.

(You may add your own least favorite politician to this list).